But Who's to Blame?

John 9 Living Bible (TLB) (redacted)

9 As he was walking along, he saw a man blind from birth.

² “Master,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it a result of his own sins or those of his parents?”

³ “Neither,” Jesus answered. “But to demonstrate the power of God.

⁶ Then he spat on the ground and made mud from the spittle and smoothed the mud over the blind man’s eyes, ⁷ and told him, “Go and wash in the Pool of Siloam. So the man went where he was sent and washed and came back seeing!

⁸ His neighbors and others who knew him as a blind beggar asked each other, “Is this the same fellow—that beggar?”

⁹ Some said yes, and some said no. “It can’t be the same man,” they thought, “but he surely looks like him!”

And the beggar said, “I am the same man!”

¹⁰ Then they asked him how in the world he could see. What had happened?

¹¹ And he told them, “A man they call Jesus made mud and smoothed it over my eyes and told me to go to the Pool of Siloam and wash off the mud. I did, and I can see!”

¹² “Where is he now?” they asked.

“I don’t know,” he replied.

¹³ Then they took the man to the Pharisees. ¹⁴ Now as it happened, this all occurred on a Sabbath.^{[a] 15} Then the Pharisees asked him all about it. So he told them how Jesus had smoothed the mud over his eyes, and when it was washed away, he could see!

¹⁶ Some of them said, “Then this fellow Jesus is not from God because he is working on the Sabbath.”

Others said, “But how could an ordinary sinner do such miracles?” So there was a deep division of opinion among them.

²⁴  For the second time they called in the man who had been blind and told him, “Give the glory to God, not to Jesus, for we know Jesus is an evil person.”

²⁵ “I don’t know whether he is good or bad,” the man replied, “but I know this: I was blind, and now I see!”

This is a beautiful story that shows a variety of ways we get distracted from seeing God at work in our lives.  Here is a man who was blind from birth. He was never able to see.  Never.  There was no accident, no injury, just blindness.  And after years of blindness, and begging to survive since he wouldn’t have been able to work, Jesus takes spit and dirt and cures him; he restores his sight.  A miracle took place and this man’s life was transformed.  That’s the point of the story.  The description of the healing is repeated FOUR times!

 What took place is a big deal, but ultimately, the others in the story aren’t focused on that.  They are distracted by other things.  First, we have the disciples.  The disciples are worried about why this man is blind in the first place.  And there is an Old Testament passage that says the consequences of your sins will be passed down from generation to generation.  So, they assume that’s what happened. Someone sinned and he’s suffering the consequences.  Technically, the disciples are asking a legitimate question. It sounds odd to us, but for them it was simple.  And they wanted to know, if he was born blind, was it his sin or his parents’ sin?   And reasonably, if he was born blind, then it must have been his parents’ sin, or maybe his grandparents’.  The disciples know there must be someone to blame; they want to know who.  But Jesus doesn’t answer their question, not like they expected.  He instead says, “Neither”.  The blindness doesn’t come as punishment for sin. Instead, it gives us the opportunity to see God’s power.  We can see God at work. 

But that explanation then begs the question, “So is God making the man suffer with blindness so that God can later be glorified?” 

No, that’s not the point either.  If we get stuck there, then we become stuck just like the disciples, we only keep trying to find someone to blame for the blindness.  But we miss the point of this story of Jesus healing the man if we keep focusing on why the man is blind in the first place and lose sight of the fact that Jesus healed the man with mud and spit.  Jesus healed this man.  Jesus performed a miracle.  Jesus touched him and healed him and changed him forever. 

We finally get the disciples on board and understanding the miracle of what took place, and we have to deal with different dissenters.  The Pharisees got hung up on Jesus healing the man, wondering just who gave him the right to do such a thing. And Jesus didn’t just heal without proper authority, but he did it on the Sabbath.  And we all know you can’t work on the Sabbath.  (well, you know, they couldn’t work on the Sabbath, but we can…)  Jesus was a rule breaker.  The Pharisees were so bothered by Jesus’ supposed disregard of the rules that they couldn’t see the miracle that just took place before them.  Jesus refused to play by the rules.  And since it didn’t happen the *right* way, it was a problem.  Who cares if the man can see? Who cares if he can work? Who cares if he can be a part of the community again?  Jesus was unconventional. He broke the rules. And we all know that rule breakers certainly can’t be doing God’s work.  Except, Jesus didn’t really break the rules.  The Pharisees saw that healed on the Sabbath, and they considered that work.  But they’re too focused on the letter of the law.  From other scriptures where Jesus healed on the Sabbath, we can see a similar issue.  And if we look at the 4^th commandment, we are reminded “to honor the Sabbath and keep it holy.”  The Jews defined that as not working.  But here’s the thing, what’s the point of Sabbath?  Is the purpose of Sabbath to prevent us from working?  No.  Not working only goes to serve the purpose of Sabbath.  The purpose of Sabbath is to restore us.  Sabbath is meant to give us a time away from work, a time of rest, SO THAT we might be restored in mind, body, and spirit.  Sabbath is redemptive, not prohibitive.  And if we understand that the purpose of Sabbath is to bring us back to wholeness, then we can see that healing on the Sabbath is really a fulfillment of the law, and not rejection of it. 

So if this story isn’t about God’s punishment, restrictions, and the consequences of our sin, then what is it about?  It’s a story about God’s grace.  Grace is God’s free gift to us. It’s something we cannot earn and something we do not deserve.  And God expects nothing in return. Grace is free.  It’s given free and clear.  No expectations. No strings attached.  God is not a God of wrath against our sinfulness but instead a God of grace and redemption. 

I know it sounds weird, but sin opens the door so that we might come to know God’s grace.  Yes, there are consequences for sin. No we shouldn’t go out and sin just so God has more opportunities to show us grace.  Grace transforms us. It changes the shape of our lives.  It makes us different.  The man in this story was touched by grace, a gift freely offered by God, something he didn’t earn or necessarily deserve, and his first transformation took the form of sight. But having sight literally changed the way he encountered the world.  And he would have been able to work. And he would have been restored to the community.  His whole world changed in a matter of minutes.   The impact of what Jesus did for him changed him forever and the only response he knew to take was to follow Jesus. He wanted more of that life. He wanted more of that grace.  He was made new by grace. 

We have the same opportunity to be touched and affected by grace, not because grace is a reward for sin. Not because God doesn’t care what our sins are. God cares very much because God knows our sins will only serve to destroy us.  God wants us to be people of grace. People who receive grace and people who offer grace.  Grace marks us. And when we receive that gift from God, it comes to define us. 

We have the temptation, like the disciples and the Pharisees, to get hung up on other things.  We can become too focused on the nature of sin, and the just consequence, that we miss the point entirely.  God’s objective in our lives is redemption. We are meant to be restored. We are meant to be renewed. We are meant to be transformed.  But to encounter that, we have to receive the gift of grace.  We have to be willing to let Jesus intervene on our behalf. 

At the beginning of Lent, I preached about miracles.  We looked at our need for God to do a miracle in our own lives.  Some of us prayed for financial stability. Some of us prayed against an addiction. Some of us prayed for restoration of a relationship.  Some of us prayed for courage to share our faith. Some of us prayed for our children.  Some of us prayed for our parents.  Some of us prayed for our spouses.  Some of us prayed for our world.  We all acknowledged our need for God to intervene in our lives and do something that seemed impossible.  Some of us have seen God’s response already. We have witnessed a miracle.  We have received God’s gift of grace and been transformed.  Others of us are still waiting and praying fervently.  Others of us got distracted.  We got hung up on the details. We became too focused on figuring out the why of our circumstances, like the disciples, that we became blind to the possibility of a miracle for ourselves.  And others of us, like the Pharisees, could only see the reasons Jesus shouldn’t do such a thing in our lives.  And we got hung up. We got distracted.  But God is calling us back to the possibilities. God is calling us back to grace. God is calling us back to the miracles.  Why?  Because God is a god of grace and redemption, not one of consequences and restrictions. God wants to bless you. God wants to restore you. God wants to bring wholeness to your life. 

Let us pray.

Healing of the Leper

Do any of you wish there were never any pain?  Anyone wish we could be free of pain forever?  No more aches? No more shooting pains? No more throbbing?  If I could wave a wand or say a prayer and pain went away forever, how many of us would be on board? 

Anyone think it might be a problem?  Why? 

Today’s story focuses on the leper.  Anyone have any ideas about what that means?  What do we think of when we think of lepers? Boils? Limbs falling off?  Skin peeling?  Right. And in the ancient days, and probably today too, we think that leprosy is contagious by touch.  No one wanted to touch you, for physical reasons and spiritual ones. Like most illnesses in the first century and before, if you were sick in these ways, you were deemed unclean. And if you were unclean you couldn’t draw close to God, you couldn’t go to the temple and worship, and you couldn’t be in contact with others because you run the risk of infecting them and making them unclean too. 

But there’s something we don’t all know or understand about leprosy.  Leprosy[1] is a bacterial infection that can lay dormant in the body for 5-20 years.  It can cause a number of impairments including blindness and numbness and lack of sensation.  By in large, it’s not the infection that causes the loss of limbs and odd symptoms and problems. Instead, it’s the symptoms that provoke greater problems.  I mean, it’s not the infection that eats away at a limb or causes major skin damage.  It’s most often the lack of feeling, the numbness that does it.  When the leper feels no pain, it’s hard to comprehend that there’s a danger.  If he puts his hand on a hot griddle, he feels no heat, and hence no pain and doesn’t know to move his hand rapidly.  Other lepers have developed problems because of repeated behaviors, from mopping, to scrubbing, to scratching and again, because of the lack of pain, she doesn’t know when her body needs to stop, so she pushes beyond the limits and causes injury.  In essence, the inherent problem for lepers is not the existence of pain, but the lack of it.  If they experienced pain, their bodies would alert to danger, fatigue, and injury and they would know to stop or to seek help. But without the sensation of pain, they are left vulnerable to a variety of casual sources of harm.

So, today we have this leper, this unclean man, was on the margins of his community. He was not welcome in and would not be welcomed back until he was healed and redeemed through a sacrifice.  He was sick. He was numb. And his body didn’t have clear signals to help him prevent future pain or injury.  He needed help and so he sought Jesus. 

The leper, who is never named, goes to Jesus and says, “If you will, you can make me clean.”  There’s an interesting point with the translation here that tells us the phrase “If you will” is not simply one that is completely subjective, waiting on Jesus’ willingness.  Instead, “If you will” in the Greek implies an inherent expectation and assurance. It might better be translated, “If you will, and I know you will, you can make me clean.” Or, “If you want to, and I know you do, you can make me clean.”  The language here says the leper is convicted of the truth that Jesus will do this for him.   All he needs to do is ask. 

And immediately Jesus replies, “I will. Be made clean.” And he instructs the man to go to the temple and offer the required sacrifice.  That would be his ticket back into the community.  And it wasn’t a simple, “here’s my bird, here’s my sacrifice, have a good day!”  The rituals for cleansing of a leper required a good bit.  First he would be examined by the priest. They he would offer two birds as a sacrifice.  Then one bird would be offered as a sacrifice. The other would carry out part of the cleansing ritual.  You might wonder how others would know he was clean. A sacrifice or offering after all doesn’t reflect on our outside. The sacrifice wasn’t all that was required. The man then had to wash his clothes, take a bath, shave his head and stay alone for a week.  After a week, he had to shave again, all his hair, his head, his eyebrows, his beard and he had to offer 2 lambs as a sacrifice. Again, one would be sacrificed and one would remain.  The blood would be used to anoint the man. And then he would be anointed with oil.  Then he would offer a grain offering. And then he would be clean. And everyone would know he had been healed.  And he would be welcomed back to the community. 

So Jesus’ next statement is almost ridiculous. He says, “Go and tell no one.” Really?!  Go and tell no one?!  Everything from your head to your toes will declare something has changed, that you have been healed, and that you are welcome back into the community.  But don’t tell anyone!  Not only would it be natural for him to want to share his story and celebrate not being sick, and being able to feel again, and being able to spend time with family and friends, but what was required by Torah law would have testified for him.  His faithfulness and obedience to the law alone would have spread the word.  And so when people asked, he told them. He shared all about it. And the news spread, and spread and spread. 

The scripture tells us that Jesus could no longer go to town, he would be swamped there. So he stayed in the outskirts, but even that didn’t work. People sought him out. They came from every corner and found him.  The gospel writer makes it sound regrettable, “Poor Jesus, he couldn’t even go to town anymore.” And maybe I’m a little calloused, but I think, “What did He expect was going to happen?!?!” He changed a man’s life. He performed a miracle.  He healed him of one of the ugliest diseases of the day. And he expected life would just carry on as if nothing had happened?!  Fat chance!

The work that Jesus does in our lives is worth sharing!  He has the power to help us overcome all kinds of adversity.  Through him we can be healed physically, emotionally, and relationally.  Through him we are forgiven of countless sins.  In him we find acceptance for all that we are and all that we are not.  Because of him we are forgiven and are given the power to forgive others and that forgiveness saves marriages, and families, and friendships.  And yet despite all of that, some people expect us to keep silent. They want us to not say a word, to just keep it to ourselves. And yet, the things that happen as a result of being healed and renewed by Christ are a testimony in and of themselves.  The peace we experience, the release from anger and bitterness, the joy despite hardships and trials, the hope for our future, all of those things are a testimony in and of themselves.  And they make people ask and wonder, what happened?  What makes it different for you?  How did that come to pass? 

And in those moments, when people wonder about our generosity, or our willingness to forgive, or our ability to overcome, or the change in our lifestyle, or our joy, we are being invited to witness and share our testimony.  It may not seem as grand or as dramatic as being healed of leprosy, or maybe it does, but Jesus has done things for us and in our lives.  And if we can’t see it, if we’ve never dared to walk up and ask him for it, then why not today?  Why not dare to approach Jesus and say, “Lord I need to be healed.” Or “Lord, I need to be changed.” Or “Lord, I need to be forgiven.” Or “Lord, I need to have hope.” “ If you’re willing, and I’m going to trust that you are, will you do this for me?!”

All we have to do is ask.  Jesus wants to restore our lives. He wants to make a difference.  And when it happens, we need to acknowledge that action and spread the word.  After all, if it’s made a real difference in our lives, why wouldn’t we want to share that with others?! 

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leprosy